The Team Fortress 2 Mix-Up Match charity matches have concluded and the team is actively working on polishing up and uploading the replays. So far the first two have been made available with rounds on Upward and Viaduct and the third round on Lakeside will be available soon. So soon in fact that we were told Monday was the day the final replay would be available. That's today!

The Mix-Up series raffles off a chance for three lucky winners via donations to play with developers and community celebrities in a Highlander best of three rounds. All donations and ad revenue will be donated to Doctors Worldwide.

Though we think we’ve done a good job rewarding community contributors who make cosmetics and weapons, we could definitely do more for TF’s diligent, underappreciated map makers. With that in mind, we’re trying two new approaches to the problem.

Map Stamp Improvements

After taunting in a community map that you’ve contributed to, you now leave behind a trail of large stamps. The more you contribute, the longer the trail!

We’re now also tracking hours played in each map. In the “Maps” section of the in-game Mann Co. Store, you can see how many hours you’ve played each community map and how many times you’ve contributed to it. Plus, occasionally, on check out, you’ll be gently reminded that it might be nice to add a stamp to your cart for a map that you’ve played frequently but haven’t contributed much to. After you’ve seen this reminder once, you can have it show other map stamp suggestions by checking the “Support Community Map Mapers” box near the “check out” button.

Map-Specific Strange Filters

Sold in the store, these new filters let you set your strange weapons to only track events on specific community maps. For instance, if you only care about kills on “Yukon”, you can change the filter on your shotgun to just capture that. When filtering stats for a weapon, you’ll also get a custom rank modifier. So, in the aforementioned “Yukon” example, you’d now have a “Strange Canadian Shotgun”. The goal is to give players who really like specific community maps a way to both track their stats on those maps and broadcast their interest even when they’re playing on other levels.

Note that in both cases, 100% of the revenue (minus net taxes) goes to the contributor, so let’s get out there and support our map makers!

This is not a test blog post! You are not dreaming! This is actually happening! Go get it! There is nothing more to say! We’re still talking! Amazingly, you’re still reading! This is getting weird! Well, we’re going to end this blog post now! You can keep reading it if you want, we guess, but we’re going to stop writing! Okay, we’re still writing! And you’re still reading. You don’t feel remorse or fear or eye strain and you will never, ever give up until all these words are read! You are the greatest reader of ALL TIME and this is the “300” of reading! Only instead of getting killed by Persians, we’re going to suggest you simply go check out the brand new, incredibly convenient Mann Co. Online Store. There’s a bunch of words there that need reading. Plus pictures.

Updates to Team Fortress 2, Day of Defeat: Source and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:Source Engine Changes (TF2, DoD:S, HL2:DM)

Updated some Big Picture features

Additional improvements for client stability

Team Fortress 2

Australian Christmas has begun!

Added community-contributed winter event items

Added three new community weapons

The Vaccinator

The Loose Cannon

The Rescue Ranger

Added Naughty and Nice winter keys to the Mann Co. Store

Mann Vs. Machine

Added a new tour of duty with unique loot:

Operation Mecha Engine, with 3 new advanced skill missions

New map mvm_bigrock

New Engineer Botkiller items

Added new Engineer robot

Added new Strange Filter items to the Mann Co. Store to support community map makers

Added new checkout dialogs and taunt-activated effect to raise awareness for Community Map Stamps

Added +context_action command (defaults to X for controllers). This will use the action slot if your Canteen contains a charge and will taunt otherwise3

That's right, December 25th is almost here, and that means the Smissmas season is once again upon us. Now we know some people will be celebrating a different holiday next Tuesday, and for all of you, let us be the first to say: Happy Constitution Day, China! But regardless of what event you're planning to honor, whether it's Quaid-e-Azam's Day, the 1837 Battle of Okeechobee, or Star Trek: Deep Space Nine producer Rick Berman's sixty-sixth birthday, rest assured that, on the inside, we're all celebrating the same thing. And that thing is Smissmas. Because it's the best holiday. Need proof? Check out all the new stuff we're shippingsoon in a joyful, dangerous explosion of Smissmas updating.

What's this? Adult Swim gear for Team Fortress? It's true! Scout sent away for a Monarch Henchboy costume ages ago and we can’t wait to see him die in it. Our bet is that he’ll get his blood punched out of him by Heavy. Heavy’s been begging for a chance to kill someone in his new Tennessee Top Hat.

Soon you’ll be able to represent your Adult Swim classics with Team Fortress versions of the Monarch’s Henchmen, Dr. Rockzo, Carl, and Brock Samson. We’re thinking now would be a great time to try out the Source Filmmaker and recreate some of your favorite Adult Swim moments.

Updates to Team Fortress 2, Day of Defeat: Source and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:Source Engine Changes (TF2, DoD:S, HL2:DM)

Fixed a hang on start-up with non-scalable bitmap fonts

Fixed crash on start-up when joysticks are attached

Team Fortress 2

Added a prompt to turn on controller mode when using Big Picture

Increased console font size for the Linux version

Fixed some problems caused by disabling controller mode

Fixed missing HUD sounds for Engineer building status panel

Fixed the Spy version of the tf_zombie entity not using the correct skin

Fixed international keyboard chat and console input for the Linux version

As part of our ongoing efforts to gradually phase out all Earth money in favor of Team Fortress hats, we're kicking off the TF2-only beta of our new Steam Community Market! The Market should improve trading in every way: People looking for specific items will be able to locate them faster, folks looking to sell items will find the process a lot more efficient, and best of all, we've made it easier for everybody to translate playing TF2 into buying games on Steam.

While the Market is in beta, we're limiting trading, buying and selling to one-time consumable items while we're ironing out the kinks. Also, items you buy will be subject to transaction fees; read more about it in the FAQ.

If you'd like to learn more about the Community Market—or even more importantly, give us the feedback we need to make it better—be sure to visit the Steam Community Market group.

It probably wouldn't surprise you to learn that a professional assassin like myself tends to be... discrete about things. We keep to the shadows. We avoid the spotlight. We don't host bloody dinner parties, is my point, and we don't make big bloody statues in effigy to our bloody selves.

Well, nobody bothered to tell the folks at Gaming Heads, since they only went ahead and turned me into a fourteen-inch-tall embarrassment to professionals everywhere. Two months ago Saxton Hale showed up at my door with a clipboard, a pen, and some girl he claimed was his niece, asking me to pledge five dollars for a charity walk. I wish I'd read the fine print, since Mann Co. now owns my likeness rights until the year 7039.

Anyway, the statue's out now, so if your daughter already has dolls that cry and soil themselves, why not buy her one that kills people for money? Give her a career goal. Because I guarantee you wetting your pants is not a paying job.